While reading more of the several thousand messeges on this ng, I found
,
by David Candy, to "Needle in a haystack".
In case you can't access that post i'll post it as a response to this post.
His post explains how to use Verifier to make a logfile of such crashes and
ways of fetting info on them.
Of course, you'll need to re-install your hardware, so the crashes occure.
The cable connecting your built in hardware to external devices, don't need
to be disconnected. Once disabled in bios, windows won't detect them
and thier drivers shouldn't be loading.
The post I mentioned above includes a link to a memory tester you can use
instead of switching out memory chips.
If you want to continue manuel troubleshooting , read on:
You didnt mention whether you checked the System Information Tool for any
listings under Problem Devices.
Doing so requires that all your hardware be installed/enabled, to see if XP
can detect the problem for you.
You should now only have an minmal system (hdd, video, motherboard, cpu,
ram, keyboard & mouse),
Has the crash re-ccured?
Are you putting your computer to same use, as close as you can, to the
conditions that the crash happened under?
If none have occured and your confident that the current hardware in use
ain't the culprit, Plug back in 1 device that you removed.
Or re-enable 1 onboard device in bios.
In windows, make sure it's detected by the Device manager and that no
conflicts are listed.
Check the System Information Tool to see if XP lists it as a problem device.
Then put your computer to use and try to cause the crash.
When your confident no crashes will occure, repat the above steps,
re-installing devices ONE AT A TIME and check thier
status in the Device Manager and System Information Tool.
When the crashes do happen again, suspect the most recently re-install
device.
Disable or uninstall said device and verify that the crashes did not occure
without it installed.
Then re-install the suspect device and wait for the crashes.
Once you have a verfied suspect, Uninstall it's drivers via the hardware
manager (if Add/Remove Prgrams has no entries for it, that is) and try
letting XP redetect it and install any drivers it has from the xp cd.
If it has none, then look for XP drivers for it from the Vendor's website
only.
If you had drivers for from a 3rd party website (such as drivers.com), you
should suspect them as the problem.
If you were using one from the vendor's website , try using an earlier
driver and contact the vendor to get help from them.
It could be that, no matter what they claim, that device may not be as xp
compatible as they'd like you to believe.
Now, if you are getting the crashes with just minimal hardware installed,
then you need to troubleshoot these items:
Memory
HDD
keyboard
Mouse
Video Card
Motherboard
I dont believe the monitor is your problem, but could be wrong
Use the memory tester David Candy mentions in his post, mentioned above.
Your HDD can be checked by using the diagnostic tools provided by it's
manufacturer,
that either came with it when you bought it, or from thier website.
If there are none available for your hdd, can use one of the tools mentioned
in many posts in this ng, to make and install
an image your new hdd onto your old hdd. The use the old hdd, to see if the
crashes occure.
I doubt the keyboard or mouse are your problem, but it's possible,especially
if they're usb devices.
Try usisng ps/2 devices, if you are.
Troubleshoot the video by using or borrowing a backup card.
Keep in mind that many (if not most) modern video cards have drivers that
load even if you change cards.
So you have uninstall the cards drivers to troubleshoot it.
If you're using and ATI or NVIDIA based video card, then make sure you're
using thier universal drivers
instead of the video card manufacturer's drivers.
If you are, then try an ealier version, especially with Nvidia's.
Troubleshoot the motherboard last, it's more difficult to do so.
If you're confident nothing else is responsible.....
Did you're crashes occure before or after you updated the chipset drivers?
Have you Updated the bios?
Did the motherboard's vendor have chipset updates?
(sometimes a devices manufacturer's drivers are more reliable then the
chipset vendor's are)
Did you install the separate chipset drivers?
( I.E. The usb & ide drivers on the cd or from the manufacturer, then the
chipset update from thier website)
I've had problems in the past from ide updates or using udma, have you tried
uninstall the ide update or disabling udma (If possible with xp)?
If, with a minimal system, the crashes occure when you're using alternate
hdd, video card, etc.
then suspect the motherboard.
Then you have 2 choices.
1) Do a clean re-install of XP.
If you're using an XP Upgrade cd, don't install the previous version of
windows,
it's possible that the XP cd had better drivers that it didnt use,
because the original os already had them.
Just keep the older windows cd handy for eula verifaction.
Once XP is installed, check the Device Manager for unknown devices
and install thier drivers, only use drivers from devices manufacturer's
(or chipset's) website.
Only update hardware drivers for devices that Xp didn't recognize.
If there are unknown devices listed that are on the motherboard, install
thier updates from it's cd only.
If you don't see an entry for usb 2.0 devices and the motherboard is usb
2.0 compatible, then install the usb
drivers from the cd, but not the ide drivers.
If any devices remain unknown, then go to the website for the vendor.
Stay away from any 3rd party driver resources, thier drivers could've
been the problem.
If any of the Motherboard has hardware that remains unknown
or it has devices listed the System Information Tool as a Problem
Device, and it's enabled in bios,
then re-download, drivers for that device, don't get any drivers for
devices, that are
detected and have drivers loaded for them, even if they're old drivers.
Once you get XP running with minimal hardware driver updates, try and
get the crashes to re-occure.
If it does, then it'd probably be easier to just replace the problem
device.
If it doesn't then i wouldn't install any more hardware updates for
devices that are working.
IF you fell you need to, then install them one at a time and see if
these crashes begin again.
If your not using some of the motherboard's onboard devices then keep
them disabled.
(I.E. disable the modem if you have broadband, or the lan if you use
dialup and aint using a home network)
2) There's a very good chance the problem is physical and not software. You
probably a vistim of badtiming.
A device could have just be going bad, right when you decide to upgrade
or had already gone bad,
your earlier os didn't detect that.
Just replace the device you finnally decide is the problem.
If you come to the conclusion that your motherboard is the culprit and you
decide to replace.
Then from my experiences i'd suggest you try a Giga-Byte board, ive never
had problems with them and like thier dual bios.
Use a motherboard, whether or not you use a Giga-byte board, that uses the
NVidia or AMD chipsets (aka NorthBridge and SouthBridge chipset),
if, you're using an intel cpu, then you may want to look for an intel
chipset instead of amd)
In the past I've had very bad experiences with other chipsets, and so only
suggest the above.
But you can and should checkout sites such as
www.tomshardware.com and
checkout diffeerent motherboard's
before buying one.
And make sure then one you get is xp certified ( Search Help & Support on
the suject (xp compatible hardware) or search microsoft's site for the
Windows Logo Program)
If none of what I've written helps you resolve your problem, I'm very sorry,
but there's no other suggestions i can make
and someone else will have to try and help you.
Good Luck
